Chapter 10: How Poverty Affects Academic Achievement: Which to Fix First? The Teachers or the Poverty? -By Lian Liu, with contributions and editing by Marcy Abong and Ileana LaGrutta Summary: The reformers’ claim is that poverty is an excuse for ineffective teaching and failing schools and they believe that the society should improving education before solve poverty. However, the claim of Ravitch is that poverty is highly correlated with low academic achievement and the society should solve the problems of education and poverty at the same time. Ravitch described a picture of the poor children’s life to emphasize that poverty affects children’s health and well-being; a depressing list of non present opportunities. An especially important point is how important poverty is before a child is born. Insufficient prenatal care leads to risk of prematurity, which increases the likelihood of physical and developmental deficiencies. The domino effect of disadvantage begins long before a child enters the classroom. Furthermore, her use of data about the rate of childhood poverty in the United States versus that of other advanced nations illustrated that the problem must be addressed in order to improve education. After that, Ravitch used examples to compare the lives of children of the poor and children of the nonpoor, i.e. “they are less likely to …” and “they are more likely to …” have certain opportunities. All in all, Ravitch believes that the reformers’ claim is backwards and delays the steps necessary to improve our education system.
This issue is important percentage of childhood poverty is very high. A crucial question in this chapter is whether we need to “fix” poverty or teachers first. Ravitch believes that poverty and segregation are the crux of all of our problems, so, not surprisingly, she asserts poverty must come first.
This issue is important in our efforts to develop a new strategic plan in Rhode Island because poverty impacts the state very much so. This can particularly be seen in the city of Central Falls. Central Falls suffers from economic disadvantages, high crime rates, and poor health care especially for pregnant mothers. That being said, as new reforms are popping up throughout the state of Rhode Island in regards to poverty and improving schools, reformers should keep these ideas in mind and realize that no real progress in student academic achievement will be made, until the issue of poverty and segregation (both issues that affect achievement even before the child enters a school building) are settled.
My reading notes：
Reformers _no sense
Highly correlated, do two at the same time
Poverty affects health and wellbeing
Most are dragged down
The rate of childhood poverty high
Poverty_before children are born_preterm birth_learning disability and many problem
Less likely to and more likely to
Conclusion
Marcy’s Additional Notes:
fixing schools before poverty -> cart before horse
poverty means less opportunities
KianaAnderson
Chapter 8
Word of mouth says that there is a drop out crisis in American high schools and that graduation rates are at an all time low. Society has a way of believing and harping on negative catch phrases that that we hear from our neighbors, our newspapers, and our news telecasters. Ravitch speaks out and counters their claims. She says that in reality drop out rates are at an all time low and that high school graduation rates are at an all time high. These popular adverse claims are really just misinterpretations of drop out and graduation rate data.
Ravitch supports her counter argument by revealing how this information has been misconstrued. Her first point is that the graduation rate data does not take into account those high school students who take more than four years to graduation. 75-78 percent of those who do not graduate in the anticipated four years continue on to get their high school diploma. Although the graduation rates may seem lower, it is actually just taking some longer to fulfill their graduation requirements. Similarly, the drop out data does not include those students who have drop out and complete their GED. These students are getting some form of degree, but in a way that messes with the data. If one looks at the data through Ravitch’s eyes, they will see that since after World War II our graduation rates have been increasing. In fact, 90 percent of people between the ages 18 and 24 in the US have either a high school diploma or their GED. There is no drop out crisis and they hype about our graduation rates is overdramatic. If anything our graduation rate seems modest because it is already so high. Now, if we wanted to tamper with the graduation rates so that it is clear to society that there is no problem, the US could lower our standards for graduation. However this would lead to meaningless degrees and low quality education. Instead of worrying about the data, we should just make sure that the US is offering the most quality education possible.
Notes: -some people take 5 years to graduate (75-78% of those who don’t graduate in 4 years). -GEDs -90% of ppl btw 18-24 have high school diploma/GED -those in non grad group include immigrants -not a good goal to have everyone graduate bc then we would have to lower graduation standards–worth less -growth rate flat because of high rates -drop outs are greatly afro-american and hispanics who drop out from highly segregated schools -graduation rate down in WWII, but rose 7% by 1970 -graduation rate 74% by 1990 and rose to 78.2% in 2010
When developing a new strategic plan, using Ravitch’s point of view, we will note that raising graduation rates is not a problem nor is it a priority. How high the graduation rates are is all a matter of perspective. In fact attempting to raise graduation rates and lower drop out rates will only hinder our goals of improving the quality of education. If anything we could provide more resources to struggling students so that they might be able to graduate in a timely manner. When developing a new strategic plan our focus needs to be the students and their education because, as Ravitch has shown, data and information can be altered or distorted.
SaraBuckley
Chapter 10: How Poverty Affects Academic Achievement
Summary:
In this chapter, Ravitch argues that poverty is highly correlated with low academic achievement. In comparison to the academic reformer's claim that poverty is an excuse for ineffective teaching and failing schools. Everyone can agree that teachers need to be effective. Specifically, Bill Gates, the Obama Administration, and other education reformers believe that if impoverished children are not achieving high levels, it is because their teachers have low expectations and are not effective. However, poverty is most likely the reason that these students are not doing so well. Poverty affects children's health and well-being, emotional lives, attention spans, school attendance records, academic performance, motivation to do well, and forces them to focus on daily survival. In a society of great abundance, poverty is degrading and most are dragged down by the circumstances of being poor. This is proven in impoverished students in America. Actually, the rate of childhood poverty in America is higher than any other advanced nation. UNICEF reported that it is as high as 23%. The burdens of poverty prove to be physical, emotional, cognitive, and physiological. It has major affects on students in America. The achievement gap begins at the very first day of kindergarten. Students with good health, regular checkups, good nutrition, educated parents, live in a literate environment, basic economic security, and a variety of afterschool and summer activities. These basic standards help students thrive, but children in poverty often fall behind from not having these basic keys for survival.
People are debating about which should be fixed first: poverty or schools. Bill Gates believes that there can be good schools in poor neighborhoods, so improving education will solve poverty. However, Joel Klein (Chancellor of New York schools) believes that America will never fix their education until they fix poverty, but America will never poverty until they fix urban schools. Our country has sadly accepted poverty as this huge issue that is almost impossible to solve, but better education seems far more attainable. Reformers believe that no matter how oppressive poverty is, it can be overcome with effective teachers. However, this is not the case. This belief delays the steps necessary to heal our society and help children. Fixing schools will help fix poverty.
Opinion:
I was specifically interested in this chapter because one day I would like to work for Teach for America or possibly be an elementary teacher in a city. This chapter gave me an entirely new perspective on poverty and how it affects schools. I have lived five minutes from New Haven, Connecticut all of my life, but I have never given much thought to how much some students are probably struggling dealing with poverty. It is unbelievable how many people are arguing about what should be fixed first, but we should all be making efforts to help. I believe that schools should be fixed first. Urban schools should be fixed to become safe and positive places for its students to go. They should all be given enough funding to provide all students with proper resources, assistance, and effective teachers. Effective teachers are important, however, it is more important to make students want to learn and ask questions. Learning should be a positive environment no matter where you live or how much money you have. This can only be achieved if people make efforts to fix schools in order to improve poverty.
JuliaCohen
Julia Cohen Ravitch Chapter Response Chapter 6
I chose to talk about Chapter 6 in Diane Ravitch’s book “Reign of Error”. I chose this chapter to talk about because I can honestly say that I agree with Ravitch 100% in what she is saying here. This chapter is all about the achievement gap in education and how it can be solved. According to the data in this book, the achievement gap is getting bigger year after year. The reformers argue that the way to fix this is to create more private schools, but Ravitch completely disagrees. She believes that the only way to fix this is to identify the problem. The real problem is the language barrier between these young kids. This is caused largely by the parents who do not teach their children English before going to a school that teaches in English, and also caused by the low income of many families. Ravitch also pointed out that there was a rise in NEAP scores. It is important to also recognize that improvement is happening! It is just hard to see this improvement because ethnic diversity is increasing at the same rate that the achievement gap is closing. Unlike the reformers, Ravitch also argues that standardized testing does not help. This is something that I agree fully with and really think that it should not be something that so much money is wasted on. A couple of decades back, the achievement gap was smaller due to the civil rights movement and Ravitch argues that change is still happening, it is just a slow process. It is hard to see the gap now-a-days because the gap stays the same since all ethnicities are improving.
The achievement gap is real. Although it should be getting smaller and be close to gone by now, that is not the case. Ravitch suggests that this process is slow and the only way to improve it is to start from the source of the problem. Ravitch believes that this achievement gap starts before children are even enrolled in school and only broadens as they grow older. She believes that it has already made significant progress but that we are focusing our time and resources on the wrong areas. She said that “test scores and graduation rates are higher than ever”, but disagrees with the reformers and says that this is a societal problem and that we won’t accomplish anything until we realize that it is about poverty and racial segregation, NOT education. She believes that making the schools private will only further segregation and do no help to demoting it. Ravitch does, however, believe that this gap is a serious problem. According to NEAP scores, 49% African American 8th graders scored below basic in math and 41% African American 8th graders scored below basic in reading. Although these scores are higher than ever, they are still unacceptable. African Americans have shown that they can do much better than “basic” and need to be given the opportunity to try. It is important to know where to fund and where not to. Ravitch believes that schools were the cause of the achievement gaps and therefore cannot be the solution.
Reading notes from the chapter:
Ravitch says that improvement is happening, just slowly
Ethnic diversity increases as gap closes
STANDARDIZED TESTING DOES NOT HELP
70’s and 80’s small achievement gap because of civil rights movement
Need to help children in underperforming schools
“test scores and graduation rates are higher than ever”
It is a societal problem, not education
Private schools won’t help in the long run and will only further segregation
Important to know where to fund and where not to
NAEP scores:
o49% African American 8th graders scored below basic in math
o41% African American 8th graders scored below basic in reading
“Achievement gap begins long before children start kindergarten”
Schools didn’t start the gaps and they can’t be expected to stop them alone
Relate to Rhode Island: Achievement gaps are prevalent in each and every one of the states in our nation, and each state’s success is important, Rhode Island is no exception to this. This chapter helped to point out the cause of the achievement gap and also helps to guide the path to fixing it. This chapter also helps to pinpoint things that should NOT be done. This is not a problem that can be fixed in one day, not even one year, but it is important that we make this gap smaller. Ravitch believes that the key to success for this task is to start educating children young. If we break the language barrier at a young age, the students will strive more and more as they get older. Rhode Island schools are definitely subject to an achievement gap, and therefore this problem can be helped by developing a new strategic plan for the Rhode Island Department of Education. But, as stated above, this problem is not always because of education, sometimes it is societal. Income is also another factor in this problem and can only be fixed by the government making equal education for all. Overall, racial segregation and achievement gaps are very real, even in Rhode Island. Although we don’t know yet exactly how to fix this, we need to try.
MeaganCoon
Reign of error chapter summary
My favorite chapter from Diane Ravitch’s book was chapter 3 -
Who Are Corporate Reformers?
Corporate reformers are mostly the people who have the money to throw at education. According to Ravitch reformers have the right goals in mind “ they want excellent education for all, to close the achievement gap, innovation and effectiveness, they want the best of everything for everyone.” This is why this chapter stood out to me so much, because reformers want what is best for education but they are going about it all the wrong way. Reformers are privatizing schools, lowering teacher qualifications and focusing too much on test scores. The school reforms are turning into a for profit business and focusing less on the actual education. She claims the “the reform is actually a “corporate reform” instead of educational. A big problem with the privatization of schools is that the money follows the child. Whenever a child leaves a public school the government money goes with them, even though most private schools and charter schools are privately funded. This can be damaging to the public system because that money is not necessarily used on that one student it is spread throughout the system. One of the most astounding parts of education reform is that it is not a one sided argument both democrats and republicans are involved. There are many foundations, both democrat and republican including the Goldwater Institute, The Freidman Foundation for Choice, and the Policy Innovators in Education Network. Ravitch refers to these as “Think Tanks”. Major corporations fund these think tanks to promote their shared agenda. This agenda generally includes privatization. These foundations include the Bill and Melinda gates foundation and the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. So basically the people with the money (Bill and Melinda Gates) get what they want out of reform because they are the people with money. It all comes down to that in the end, who has the money to put into the reform. The Gates foundation is the largest in the United States giving hundreds of millions in education grants. The gates support charter schools and test based teacher evaluations, because it is their money that is what they get. Barack Obama is surprisingly also a supporter of corporate reform. When he was elected to office his supporters expected him to eliminate No Child Left Behind, but instead he installed Race to the Top. Basically awarding money to the schools with the best test scores, not the schools who need more funding to improve. This was very hypocritical compared to Obama’s speech in 2012 claiming, “One thing I would never want to see is schools teaching to the test”. That is exactly what Race to the Top was advocating. I think this chapter is so important because educational reform will happen when there is support and the majority of support comes in the form of money. If the big foundations like the Bill and Linda Gates foundation stopped putting there money towards charter schools and started giving it to public schools the entire system could change. It is all in the hands of the reformers, the people with power. If the foundations with money and the president decided they no longer wanted to privatize and no longer wanted everything to be based off of test scores then there would be reform. They need to be educated on the options there are instead of sticking to what is known.
AllisonCorey
Ravitch Reflection- Chapter 5: The Facts About Test Scores
In this chapter Ravitch is arguing that test scores are not falling and that they are simply at the highest they have ever been. She looks at a lot of evidence from the NAEP exam (National Assessment of Educational Progress), which looks at scores of forth, eighth, and twelfth graders. Students have been learned more difficult material since the ‘90s and therefore their test scores have started to increase. The NAEP measures students in a scale score and an achievement level. When students score below proficient on the achievement level, they are thought they are below basic, which is completely false. Majority of students are below proficient but are in the basic category meaning they are average. Because people misread these scores, they are lead to believe that test scores are decreasing. But students who score basic are doing just fine; they are your typical B/C student. Math and Reading scores in almost every group of students have been improving over the past 20 years at a slow, consistent rate. Ravitch believes that reformers are interpreting the scores incorrectly; our scores are improving slowly over time.
I like this chapter in the book because it relates to my Strategic Plan Project. Individually I researched the question how effective international standardized test scores are. As a group we researched the effectiveness of standardized tests. We came up with the conclusion that there are better methods of measuring intelligence other than standardized tests. I did not research the trends in test scores over the years. Although, we are lagging behind other countries in our international exams Ravitch says that we are slowly improving over time in our own country. Of course, we can generate better test scores there is no question of that. But there is something to be said about our scores increasing over the past 20 years. Often reformers simply blame the education system but course material is gradually getting more difficult and therefore our scores are gradually improving. Although the assessment scores aren’t very high in comparison to other countries, the United States’ test scores are increasing.
This chapter is important in relation to developing a new strategic plan for Rhode Island Department of Education. They think that we have low test scores and that we need to improve them. We definitely need to increase our assessment scores but we also need to recognize that we have improved over time. The Rhode Island Department of Education needs to find ways we can keep improving our test scores and even at a faster rate. Because students’ scores have been getting progressively better but very slowly and consistently. It would be important to add into the Strategic Plan a way to improve student scores.
BayleeDiMarco
The chapter that I found most interesting in Ravitch’s Reign of Error was Chapter 25: Class Size Matters for Teaching and Learning. In this chapter, Ravitch proposes her fourth solution: “Reduce class sizes to improve student achievement and behavior.”
This topic is especially interesting to me because I understand the differences in learning quality based on class size. I agree that both students and teachers benefit from smaller classroom sizes. I attended Barrington High School, the top public high school in Rhode Island according to U.S. News & World Report published in 2014. According to the Profile for the Class of 2014 put out by the official school website, the average class size is 21 students. I found this to be mostly true. Some of my classes were about this size, but most were more. I didn’t recognize the true value of classes under 25 people until I was enrolled in an American Studies course my sophomore year of high school. This course was double the average class size, but with two teachers. I didn’t feel like this made a difference. I was lost in the sea of people around me. I didn’t feel comfortable asking questions aloud and I never felt like I got the individual help I deserved. This course was a different learning experience for me that I did not enjoy. Now in college, I feel the same way. I enjoy my small EDC 102H class, and strongly dislike my PSY 113 lecture with an auditorium full of people.
Ravitch’s claims support my opinions from the experiences that I had in high school. On page 245, she quotes economist James Heckman in saying, “attending smaller classes helps to develop the non-cognitive skills..that are so important to success in work, in college, and later in life.” The smaller class size allows teachers to give each student the individual attention they need to succeed academically. At risk students with learning challenges benefit most from smaller classes. This is all proven by higher student test scores and graduation rates from students in smaller class sizes. The issue with this reform is the reality. Reducing class sizes is a desire of many reformers, but it is unlikely that this agenda will ever push through due to financial restrictions. Tight school budgets will not allow the hiring of additional teachers. Personally, I think that the spending is worth it. The impact is significantly positive because students are more likely to succeed, and isn’t that the ultimate goal of American Education?
HalleGoldberg
Chapter 8- The Facts About High School Graduation Rates
The claim in this chapter is The nation has a dropout crisis, and high school graduation rates are falling. However, the reality is, High school dropouts are at an all time low, and high school graduation rates are at an all time high. Ravitch explains that everyone believes there is a such thing called the dropout crisis and that there is a large amount of young people who never receive their high school diplomas. But, this is not true. Individuals have incorrect information about this "crisis." A high school diploma shows that one has the ability to complete high school. Although, those who do not receive their high school diplomas are at a disadvantage to earn a living, there are certainly jobs that high school diplomas aren't necessary for. Ravitch believes that the pressure to raise the graduation rates is leading to meaningless degrees rather focusing on better education. She feels that in order to reduce dropout rates and raise the graduation rates, it needs to be based off actual facts rather than assumptions about these ideas. Ravitch quotes,"People tend to work harder if they know that their hard work is productive. If we recognize the good work that so many principals, teachers, parents, youth counselors, school psychologists, and social workers have done over the years, they- and we- wouldn't feel hopeless about conquering problems."
According to the evidence that Ravitch uses, nearly a quarter of young people in the US are unable to complete their studies in the traditional four years. The four year graduation rate is one way to measure the graduation rates. This rate does not include those individuals who earn a GED. If those students were included, the high school graduation rate would be 90 percent. People between the ages 18 and 24 who were Asian/Pacific Islanders had a completion rate of 96 percent. White youths had a percentage of 94. Black youths had an 87 percent. American Indians/Alaska Natives had a completion rate of 82 percent and a percentage of 77 for hispanics. Aside from the graduation rate, there are other ways to calculate the dropout rate. There is an "event dropout rate" which measures the percentage of of youths age 15-24 who dropped out of grades 10-12 in a one year period. There is also a "status rate" which includes all dropouts between the ages 16 and 24 who do not have a high school diploma regardless of when they dropped out of school. The status rate is usually higher than the event dropout rate.
Reading Notes:
Claim- the nation has a dropout crisis, and high school graduation rates are falling
Reality- high school dropouts are at an all time low, and high school graduation rates are at an all time high
Students who do not complete high school are at a disadvantage in their ability to make a living
A number of them are African American and Hispanic.
High school diploma signifies the ability to persist and complete high school.
The pressure to raise graduation rates often leads to meaningless degrees, not better education.
1940 the high school graduation rate reached 50%
In 2010, the 4 year graduation rate reached 78.2%
Only about 3 quarters of American students get a high school diploma in four years.
Event dropout rate- measures percentage of youths from age 15-24 who dropped out of grades 10-12 in a 12-month period.
Status rate- all dropouts between the ages of 16-24 who lack a high school diploma, regardless of when or where they left school
Status rate is always higher
Dropout rate is trending downward
The US used to have the highest high school graduation rate in the world
To get the graduation rate over 90% one is to make sure that every student gets the necessary preparation and support in the early grades so that he or she is prepared for high school. Also the standards to meet an artificial target must be lowered.
Many districts put low performing students in “credit recovery” courses where they can earn lost credits and be able to graduate.
This issue is important for districts throughout the US. It is important for Rhode Island to take this issue into consideration when creating a new strategic plan. Although the dropout rates and graduation rates are currently steady, there is always room for a slip. The RI Department of Education's new strategic plan should make an effort to encourage their residents to complete high school and earn their high school diploma. Although a diploma is not always required for a job, it should be stressed that it is a disadvantage to those who do not receive their high school diploma. The new plan should also be supportive to those students who for some reason are unable to complete high school in four years. It is important for students to know that they can receive a GED by taking an extra year or so, which would be more desirable than dropping out completely.
SamanthaKaiser
Chapter 12-Why Merit Pay Fails
Claim
Reformer's claim is that merit pay will achieve improvement. They believe that American public education is failing because of its teachers and that the wrong types of people have entered the education field who are under qualified. They believe that if teachers had a chance to earn pay based on perfomance, it would solve this "teacher-quality" problem. The reformers believe that with financial incentive, the teachers will work harder to make sure their students are getting the recognizable and praise-able grades so that they can keep that extra sum of money they were offered. Ravitch claims that reformers want education to become more like business, governed by the same principles of competition, with compensation tied to results. She claims that merit pay has never improved achievement and proves this with a number of different claims.
Ravitch's evidence
Ravitch claims that teachers do not like the idea of non-educators (most reformers) redesigning the rules of their workplace. Teachers do not like merit pay because it destroys a healthy and collaborative school environment. Government programs like No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top directly target teachers as the reason for student's failure. They also offer incentives to fire teachers whose students have lower test scores. In the 1980s, Richard Murnane and David Cohen surveyed the history of merit pay. In the few towns that had offered merit pay from 1918 to 1945, the interest in merit pay vastly declined and by 1953 only 4% of cities with a population over 30,000 offered merit pay. They also looked into piece-rate compensation, which also doesn't benefit the teacher or student. It encourages teachers to spend more time with students who will respond to their coaching and less to those who won't. Another issue that was found was that teachers would ignore subjects that were not being tested. The curriculum was being narrowed and the student's overall education experience was dwindling. Many other issues arise with merit pay according to Ravitch. Many teachers who received low scores responded by working less harder as opposed to working harder. Another issue was honest distribution of merit pay. Were principles handing out merit pay to their favorites? or to the teachers that actually deserved it? Overall merit pay is demoralizing, and cannot reasonably be administered fairly. Merit pay does not motivate teachers in Ravitch's investigation, instead it caused resentment and dissension among teachers who did not get merit pay. It is not associated with student performance. Ravitch says, "the paradox of merit pay in education is that even if it did work, it would still fail . The more that teachers and schools are compelled to focus on raising test scores, the more likely they are to narrow the curriculum; the more likely that districts and schools will game the system to inflate scores; the more likely that there will be cheating; the more likely that teachers will seek to avoid low scoring students".
Notes
-education as a business
-promotes competition and compensation results from that competition
-unions are a threat to this idea
-teachers don't like merit pay, it is degrading and demoralizing for them (discouraging)
-destroys the balance they strive for in a school, intertwined curriculum, collab.
-Murnane/Cohen research in 1980s
-no solution to problem of how to motivate teachers
-piece rate compensation---> only focuses on kids who will succeed, manufactures jobs NOT education
-narrows curriculum so only subjects that are being tested are taught or focused on
-Old style merit pay: fairness of merit...are principles being honest about distributing bonuses?
-found that teachers try less hard when rated poorly or do not receive merit pay
-Merit pay is not motivating, they work as hard as they can. they don't need an incentive to be motivated. wrong identification of problem
-government programs encourage incentives
-overall merit pay had no effect on students (the most important part of the issue)
Why important for RIDE?
The sole importance of school and academia is the student and his/her success. If teachers are competing for money, narrowing the curriculum, and ultimately focusing on themselves, it seems as if the child is losing in more ways than one. They have a distracted teacher who wants to win, they are missing out on valuable knowledge because their teacher wants them to score better on specific subject areas, the school environment becomes extremely stressful for teacher and student now that there are high stakes involved. There is no way that merit pay can be a part of the Rhode Island Strategic Plan. With multiple cases failed, it seems like it would be a joke for anyone to ever propose merit pay in communities that are large, fast paced, and always changing. This chapter promotes the idea that merit pay cannot be a part of any states education plan. It offers no benefit to the student or teacher, the two most important parts of the educational system. If the student receives more negatives than positive benefits, why is it relentlessly being proposed in school districts?
VictoriaKern
Chapter 24: The Essentials of a Good Education in Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools
Citation: Ravitch, D. (2013). Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools. Vintage.
Summary: Acclaimed education historian and policy analyst Diane Ravitch has many ideas about how to improve public education. Ravitch's third solution states, "Every school should have a full, balanced and rich curriculum, including the arts, science, history, literature, civics, geography, foreign languages, mathematics, and physical education" (Ravitch, 2013). Having a full range of electives and academic opportunities is a reality for schools in affluent communities, but children who grow up in low-income areas do not have a similar experience with curriculum. No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top have linked federal funding and teacher evaluation to high test scores in math and reading, thus undermining the value of enriching academic areas other than those that are tested. Ravitch asserts that the sole purpose of education is "to prepare everyone to assume the rights and responsibilities of citizenship in a democracy," and that narrow curricula are not going to provide enough inspiration and information to students who are learning where their place in society will be. Rather than putting all of a school's resources and energy into a few subjects, Ravitch suggests that studying civics, government, economics, statistics, foreign language, creative writing, and the arts to help prepare students for life ahead. It is a diverse curriculum and ample opportunities for personal growth that will provide the time and place for the "mental, physical, and ethical development" (Ravitch, 2013) that students need. Ravitch is disgusted by the way that children are beginning to be valued solely for their test scores instead of the worth of their character, and she suggests schools shift their curricular priorities to be more expansive and accessible to all students.
Reaction: Reading Ravitch's claims helped me solidify my beliefs about the need for a well-rounded curriculum in American public schools. I was so fortunate to be offered pottery, film, French, economics, world religions, history, environmental sciences, creative writing, and advanced calculus all in one school. The problem is, I paid for that service and I agree with Ravitch that all children have a right to what I paid for. I believe that the inequities that are rooted in deeply rooted racism and classism manifest themselves in and are exacerbated by the differences in curricular opportunities amongst schools. I wish Ravitch explained more about how offering a wider range of courses to low-performing students it would affect their academic performance and personal growth. I feel conflicted because I do want all students to do well in math and reading, but I also know that only studying a few subjects that I am not good at every day would demolish my love of learning. Overall, Ravitch's points about the essentials of a good education made me more excited to research well-rounded curricula and gave me more confidence in my ideas about the topic. If more legislators knew about all of the positive affects of electives and enriching curricula, they might realized that pressuring schools to perform well in a few subjects leads to a well-rounded curriculum being compromised.
IleanaLaGrutta
I contributed the last paragraph to the summary under chapter 10. I also added additional reading notes that are found under the other contributors' reading notes
RebeccaLelli
Rebecca Lelli
Mr. Fogleman
American Education
28 November 2014
Ravitch: Chapter 25 - Class Size Matters for Teaching and Learning
Ravitch supplies a fourth solution in chapter 25 to problems with the education system. This solution is as follows- "Reduce class sizes to improve student achievement and behavior" (242). Ravitch argues that large classrooms reduce the ability for the teacher to teach, because he or she is so busy trying to control the classroom. Studies have shown that students in smaller classrooms are less likely to act up and more likely to be engaged in what they are learning. However, although many reformers have seen that this is true, they fear that making smaller classrooms will be too costly. More classes means more teachers, and more teachers means a more expensive budget. But Ravitch argues right back, saying that these methods are expensive, but the alternative is more expensive. The alternative would be allowing kids to remain in the low learning rate classes they are in and end up spending thousands and even millions of dollars later on in remedial classes. She says that we either pay for success now, or pay to try to fix failure later.
According to the evidence Ravitch uses, only 4 to 6 percent of teachers would be willing to take on a larger class in exchange for a higher salary. This says that teachers dislike large classes enough that they are willing to refuse more pay because it is just not worth their effort. The Scholastic-Gates survey found that larger classrooms led to more children with behavioral problems, more impoverished children, and more English language learners. These students need extra attention, something that they are just not getting from big classroom settings. Studies have also shown that smaller classes improve cognitive skills, participation in discussion, and even a lower drop out rate in the future."A study of 2,561 schools released by the U.S. Department of Education found that students achievement was closely linked to class size, even in the upper grades" (246). All around, students have significant improvements in their learning when they are part of a small classroom.
Reading Notes-
Most people are in agreement that smaller class sizes result in improved learning.
Policy makers and elected official shy away from it due to cost.
Some say that in the old days people had even larger classes and they still succeeded.
This does not take into account the fact that in the "old days" special needs kids were not included in classrooms, there was no racial or socio-economical diversity, and as a result, rarely any English-language learners. If these challenges did not exist in today's classrooms, perhaps large classrooms would be fine, but such is not the case.
Elementary teachers feel the ideal class size is between 18 and 19 students. Middle and high school teachers would ideally like 20 to 21 students in a class at a time.
Many urban schools, the ones in most need of reduced class size have huge classes of 40-50 students.
It becomes harder to teach when there are multiple student with special behavioral problems in the class at a time.
Teacher gets to know student more personally in smaller classes, and is better able to help them.
Shrinking class sizes is expensive, but the payoff is worth it.
Minority children are particularly positively effected by small class sizes.
Positive behaviors and interactions are encouraged in small groups, over order and compliance.
Higher test scores.
Teachers benefit, they are less likely to leave teaching or transfer to another school.
In some of the best private schools the student to teacher ratio is 12 to 1 or 8 to 1.
Saving money today by cutting teachers and increasing class sizes will be spent later in trying to fix the results.
Rhode Island Education:
These reforms will be good for Rhode Island education in that more students will develop a deeper knowledge base earlier in their lives and as a result have a better foundation to build off of. Whether its shrinking classes or adding more teachers aids or both, this will help the economy in the long run. Not to mention the long lasting benefits it will have for the next generation of students. Imagine what would happen if more students were able to absorb the knowledge that teachers were spoon feeding them. How much lower the poverty rate, drop out rate, and uneducated rate would be. All research aside, it is logical to think that smaller classrooms would help children learn. Kids would be less afraid to speak up when they are confused, they would feel more compelled to pay close attention, and they become part of a discussion in which they are encouraged to think for themselves.
SamanthaLindquist
Samantha Lindquist
Professor Fogleman
EDC 102H
Ravitch Reflection
Chapter Two: The Context of Corporate Reform
My favorite chapter in the book Reign of Error by Diane Ravitch was the second chapter, The Context for Corporate Reform. I liked this chapter because it allowed me to learn all about what has been going on with corporate reform in our society. It also allowed me to learn about and understand the new ideas that now surround the idea of Corporate Reform. This chapter helps you understand how the ideas that have stemmed from Corporate Reform have grown over the years especially in the Clinton administration and under George W. H. Bush with the No Child Left Behind policy in the early 2000s. The chapter also lets you know exactly what types of Corporate Reform were thought of first with the Clinton administration, they wanted national standards and national testing to understand the schooling in the United States. While during the second Bush administration the idea of No Child Left Behind came into play and that had testing for all children in the grades 3 to 8 every year to see the progress each year. The idea with No Child Left Behind was that it found the schools that weren’t doing what they should to help their students and got rid of them. To me this is seeing things change by the ideas of Corporate Reform and really understanding exactly what they are doing. These were things that I had never known because it was not really wide spread knowledge, also that I was a lot younger when No Child Left Behind was really working for the betterment of schools.
MelanieMertens
The part of Ravitch's book that I found most interesting was chapter 23: The Early Years Count. The focus of the chapter is on the disadvantages some children face in our current society and how those disadvantages affect a child's ability to learn. This was a very interesting topic for me because I am involved with Jumpstart, a program aiming to close the achievement gap of students entering kindergarten. Through Jumpstart, we learn a lot about how to help the children improve, but not as much what causes some children to get so behind others. The issue with this program is that it only affects some children whose parents choose for them to be in it and those children are already at a better standing learning-wise because their parents have sent them to preschool. At present, only about half our nation's children attend preschool each year, for low income families, that means that less than half are likely to graduate high school and even less likely college, then find a high paying job. If preschool were to be made universal in the United States, then more children would be set up for success and improve our society as they grow into adulthood. I think that this opportunity would be great for not only the children, but the teachers too because if children are being held to an equal standard for going into kindergarten, they will all begin their education at similar levels and as they get older and schools combine, there will be less variation in skill levels and more chance of success.
MadelineMucci
Reign of Error Chapter 25 Notes
"Class Size Matters for Teaching and Learning"
This chapter discusses class size and how it affects both teachers and students. Over 80% of all teachers would take smaller class sizes over an increase in pay. Although it is expected of teachers to have attitudes like this, the fact that so many of them do proves how important this issue is and how crucial class size is to learning. Parents and students agree that smaller class sizes are ideal, and even the older people in government now claim that large class sizes worked well for them when they were in school can't say they would rather have their children in huge classes. When larger class sizes worked for these older people was before our school systems had so much diversity in them when it comes to race, income level, social class, mental, emotional, and physical ability, and ethnic background.
Teachers' ratings depend entirely on their class size, because a teacher who can work very well with 25 students would definitely see his/her ratings decline in a class size of 40, which is a change some reformers want to make in order to only keep the absolute best teachers. So Ravitch claims that even the best teachers wouldn't be the best if their entire environment was changed that drastically. As classes become more and more diverse, students need more time to learn and interact, and teachers need more time to help every student, especially when the amount of classrooms with teacher aids is very small. More students means a teacher has to focus more on management and control rather than instruction and curriculum.
It would be very costly to reduce class sizes, because it means hiring more teachers for the same amount of classes, but Ravitch believes that in the long run it is well worth the cost because it will result in higher achievement levels, higher graduation rates, and lower special education referrals. Basically Ravitch says that schools have two choices: reduce class sizes and experience great benefits from it for years, or increase class sizes and deal with remediation, disruptive behavior, and failure for many years. And although both options would be expensive, one will need money to increase future success, and one will need money to compensate for failure.
VictoriaPetit
Chapter 24 of Diane Ravitch’s book Reign of error is about the importance of having a rich curriculum in public schools. The No Child Left Behind Act and the recession of 2008 led to budget cuts in areas that were not being tested. In affluent areas, both private and public schools offer an array of courses from subjects beyond math and reading. Parents expect their children to be educated in many different subjects. Inequality is prevalent in the United States; this unequal opportunity hurts many students who are not enrolled in private schools, or have the funds to explore areas that aren’t offered in the school setting. The goal of school is to equip students with knowledge to thrive as citizens. The way to do this is to offer classes in a variety of subjects since each subject teaches an important lesson; for example, history is needed so students understand how wars were started and resolved. By focusing on test scores, there is a misconception of what is essential to education.
I did my research for the RI Strategic Plan project on a rich curriculum; this chapter was interesting to read after having prior knowledge about the topic. Having a rich curriculum would veer away from teaching solely to prepare for required state testing. The part I disagreed with Ravitch about was the belittling of workforce preparation; I think the addition of that in school would make a difference in a student’s future. The importance of school could be increased by standards of parents, students, and teachers with a rich curriculum by broadening the topics learned and better preparing students for the world. By doing this, students will grow and be better citizens. I think the ‘game of school’ would be minimized because teachers would have more control over their role in the classroom and students would have many different subjects to learn. School may become more interesting with the implementation of many subjects and students would in turn become more engaged.
Notes on Chapter 24:
-arts, science, history, literature, civics, geography, foreign languages, mathematics, and physical education
-No Child Left Behind Act led to cutting of other subjects (that weren’t required/tested)
-2008 recession also led to budget cutsàcut out extras
-demanding families would expect much more than basic skills; full, rich curriculum
-school is needed to make students good citizens
-misconceived notion that test scores are more valuable than a wholesome curriculum
-liberal arts teach things that cannot be taught in other settings/courses
-talents, careers, and citizenship should be explored
RyanSmith
Reign of Error Notes – Chapter 26
Ryan Smith
Generally, this chapter suggests that in order for charter schools to be successful in pursuit of their original purpose (“A way to empower public school teachers to devise their own innovative curricula and methods and to free them from excessive regulation and bureaucracy” (Ravitch 248).), for-profit charters must be banned. Ravitch starts off by explaining how high the expulsion rates are at charter schools. The children that are expelled, usually those who score lower (on average) on standardized tests, and are sent to public schools. Consequently, public schools are responsible for the students that are more difficult to teach while test scores at charter schools rise. Ravitch offers five changes to state law that could realign charter schools with their original purpose.
First, Ravitch suggests that no school should be operated for profit. She says, “The primary goal of a for-profit organization is to maximize profit, not to produce great education” (Ravitch 250). Secondly, Ravitch says that charter schools should be managed by local educators and nonprofit organizations as opposed to charter chains. A charter school managed by a community is more likely to reflect the individualistic goals of that community, as opposed to the goals of a for-profit chain. Next, Ravitch advises that the salaries of charter school executives and principals be aligned with those of public school superintendents and principals. This would likely eliminate competition within a community. Fourth, Ravitch insists that online charter schools are closely monitored. Students who wish to enroll in online charters should be interviewed and deemed legitimate, and upon leaving online schools their funds should follow them. Finally, Ravitch proposes that a portion of students struggling to succeed in public schools be enrolled in charters. Charter schools could then pursue their original goal, to explore new ways to educate these students. Overall, it is essential that instead of competing with each other, charter and public schools cooperate to better the education system in the United States.
Citation:
Ravitch, D. (2013). Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools. Vintage.
AdamSokolowski
My favorite chapter of Ravitch's book was chapter 6 which is also the chapter I added information too in the reading notes. This chapter is my favorite because it took the main idea of Ripley's book and proved it to be false. My favorite thing to see done in Ravitch's book is to bring up many different key ideas that are being used by others and are believed to be true, and disproving them. One of the points in Ripley's book is that the achievement gap is staying the same, however in Ravitch's book she is able to prove that the achievement gap has shrank in the past during the civil rights movement but has remained static in the past years because all groups of students are increasing in NAEP scores at the same rate.
I did add to the end of chapter 6 in the big note file. I wrote a one paragraph summary of the reformers' claim and Ravitch's argument, a description of the evidence that used by Ravitch, and a description of why this issue is important for our efforts to develop a new strategic plan.
In this chapter the reformers main claim is that the achievement gaps between minority students are getting larger and larger and that privatization will aid in closing the achievement gap. The main argument made by ravitch is that there has been progress made in lowering the achievement gap, it just is not very noticeable because all ethnicities of students are increasing at a similar rate. she also claims that the achievement gap will remain large if we do not focus our attention at the real cause of the gap which is the family income and education level of the parents. The reformers believe that standardized testing will be able to change the achievement gap as well as improving the quality of teachers in lower income urban schools. Ravitch also claims that standardized testing does not solve to root problem which is that students are entering school unprepared to learn due to a language barrier or a childhood lees directed toward learning that would be given through educated parents.
The main evidence used by Ravitch in this chapter are the increases in NAEP scores presented above by former students. The number of students below basic in the fourth grade math category decreased substantially for all ethnicities as did eighth grade math and reading skills. Ravitch also points out that the largest decrease in the achievement gap was in the 70’s and 80’s because of the civil rights movement and since then the gap has remained only because all ethnicities of students are improving in their NAEP scores with the exception of American Indians in fourth grade reading.
This issue is important for the development of a new strategic plan in Rhode Island because it provides information on what causes the achievement gap and where to invest resources to continue narrowing the gap. The learning of vocabulary and skills needed to school begins at a very young age before school begins and even before preschool begins. Because of this fact it is very beneficial for young students to enroll in some kind of preschool classes to ensure they are ready for Kindergarten and first grade. Pre-school should be a more widely available for students in urban areas so more affluent children are not the only children who receive this advantage.
AmandaWard
My favorite chapter of Diane Ravitch's "Reign of Error", was chapter 23. This chapter is called "The Early Years Count". This was not an assigned chapter of reading, but it was a chapter that we could have read on our own. Considering my interest in education is early childhood I found it important to read. Ravitch talks about how achievement gaps among students are shown from the very first day of school. These gaps can be caused by the different environments that the pupils were exposed to. An example of different environments is if a child is around a lot of talking or if they have not heard many words yet, which effects their vocabulary. Differences in environment also affect a child's willingness to learn. In addition to this, Ravitch also says that health care and nutrition play a key role in physical and mental development. Early childhood education can help narrow the gaps of pupils caused by home environments.
According to James Heckman the numbers of children born into disadvantaged homes is increasing. If a child has an absence of supportive family environment then it hurts the child's future and creates the achievement gap. This can be stopped if society intervenes early enough. Early childhood education can improve the cognitive and emotional abilities of the pupils who experience disadvantaged homes. This early foundation for learning is crucial for the rest of the child's life. Children who are motivated to learn earlier in life are more likely to be socially and economically successful.
Ravitch believes that noncognitive skills are just as important in life as cognitive ones. She thinks that programs like No Child Left Behind do not emphasis noncognitive skills such as motivation, self discipline, and the ability to work with others. Investments in early childhood education leave significant lasting effects on the child and help improve noncognitive skills. High quality and well prepared teachers could change the achievement gaps of many kids.
EmmaZingg
Chapter 5- The Facts About Test Scores
Chapter 5 focuses mainly on analyzing the standardized test called the NAEP. Ravitch gets right to the point that, "Critics have complained for many years that American students are not learning as much as they used to or that academic performance is flat" in the first sentence of this chapter. The entire chapter is an explanation on how test score are in fact steadily rising. She explained the detail of the scoring of the NAEP, and made it clear that a student earns a score on a scale from 0 to 500 but receiving a 250 is not a bad grade. Although as an average this would be a 50% this is not how this data is meant to be interpreted. Rather the score anables us to compare to other years and see a trend improvement over time. The goal is not to receive a 500 but perhaps a high average score than the previous year. Additionally those who interpret these scores do not realize there are also achievement levels advanced, proficient, basic, and below basic. Ravitch in fact shows readers a clear example where data was misinterpreted. Ravitch states on page 48 that, "Guggenheim assumed that students who were not 'proficient' on the NAEP were 'below grade level'". Guggenheim continued to make statements based upon that. But us readers were already aware that this is not true because besides being proficient you could be advance, or basic, leaving the rest to being below basic. Being below basic would be the only students who are below grade level as he is claiming 70% of those taking the test to be which is completely inaccurate.
This chapter was very interesting to me to not only see the advancement that we as a nation have made over the last decade, but also it was amazing to see that people were actually misinformed because a huge piece of information was missing from their analysis. This made me realize as a student and a future educator that when analyzing data I must be aware of what this data was meant for and how to read the data, and to not make assumptions. It was relieving to know that our countries education system is improving according to the NAEP. I was also intrigued by the assumptions that Ravitch made based upon the test scores of different ethnicities and how that spoke to the way in which these students were nourished and not so much to how they have been educated. But overall it was exciting to hear that the education system is improving despite what society may think considering that Guggenheim had misread the data from the NAEP.
Chapter 10: How Poverty Affects Academic Achievement: Which to Fix First? The Teachers or the Poverty?
-By Lian Liu, with contributions and editing by Marcy Abong and Ileana LaGrutta
Summary:
The reformers’ claim is that poverty is an excuse for ineffective teaching and failing schools and they believe that the society should improving education before solve poverty. However, the claim of Ravitch is that poverty is highly correlated with low academic achievement and the society should solve the problems of education and poverty at the same time.
Ravitch described a picture of the poor children’s life to emphasize that poverty affects children’s health and well-being; a depressing list of non present opportunities. An especially important point is how important poverty is before a child is born. Insufficient prenatal care leads to risk of prematurity, which increases the likelihood of physical and developmental deficiencies. The domino effect of disadvantage begins long before a child enters the classroom. Furthermore, her use of data about the rate of childhood poverty in the United States versus that of other advanced nations illustrated that the problem must be addressed in order to improve education. After that, Ravitch used examples to compare the lives of children of the poor and children of the nonpoor, i.e. “they are less likely to …” and “they are more likely to …” have certain opportunities. All in all, Ravitch believes that the reformers’ claim is backwards and delays the steps necessary to improve our education system.
This issue is important percentage of childhood poverty is very high. A crucial question in this chapter is whether we need to “fix” poverty or teachers first. Ravitch believes that poverty and segregation are the crux of all of our problems, so, not surprisingly, she asserts poverty must come first.
This issue is important in our efforts to develop a new strategic plan in Rhode Island because poverty impacts the state very much so. This can particularly be seen in the city of Central Falls. Central Falls suffers from economic disadvantages, high crime rates, and poor health care especially for pregnant mothers. That being said, as new reforms are popping up throughout the state of Rhode Island in regards to poverty and improving schools, reformers should keep these ideas in mind and realize that no real progress in student academic achievement will be made, until the issue of poverty and segregation (both issues that affect achievement even before the child enters a school building) are settled.
My reading notes：
Marcy’s Additional Notes:
Word of mouth says that there is a drop out crisis in American high schools and that graduation rates are at an all time low. Society has a way of believing and harping on negative catch phrases that that we hear from our neighbors, our newspapers, and our news telecasters. Ravitch speaks out and counters their claims. She says that in reality drop out rates are at an all time low and that high school graduation rates are at an all time high. These popular adverse claims are really just misinterpretations of drop out and graduation rate data.
Ravitch supports her counter argument by revealing how this information has been misconstrued. Her first point is that the graduation rate data does not take into account those high school students who take more than four years to graduation. 75-78 percent of those who do not graduate in the anticipated four years continue on to get their high school diploma. Although the graduation rates may seem lower, it is actually just taking some longer to fulfill their graduation requirements. Similarly, the drop out data does not include those students who have drop out and complete their GED. These students are getting some form of degree, but in a way that messes with the data. If one looks at the data through Ravitch’s eyes, they will see that since after World War II our graduation rates have been increasing. In fact, 90 percent of people between the ages 18 and 24 in the US have either a high school diploma or their GED. There is no drop out crisis and they hype about our graduation rates is overdramatic. If anything our graduation rate seems modest because it is already so high. Now, if we wanted to tamper with the graduation rates so that it is clear to society that there is no problem, the US could lower our standards for graduation. However this would lead to meaningless degrees and low quality education. Instead of worrying about the data, we should just make sure that the US is offering the most quality education possible.
Notes:
-some people take 5 years to graduate (75-78% of those who don’t graduate in 4 years).
-GEDs
-90% of ppl btw 18-24 have high school diploma/GED
-those in non grad group include immigrants
-not a good goal to have everyone graduate bc then we would have to lower graduation standards–worth less
-growth rate flat because of high rates
-drop outs are greatly afro-american and hispanics who drop out from highly segregated schools
-graduation rate down in WWII, but rose 7% by 1970
-graduation rate 74% by 1990 and rose to 78.2% in 2010
When developing a new strategic plan, using Ravitch’s point of view, we will note that raising graduation rates is not a problem nor is it a priority. How high the graduation rates are is all a matter of perspective. In fact attempting to raise graduation rates and lower drop out rates will only hinder our goals of improving the quality of education. If anything we could provide more resources to struggling students so that they might be able to graduate in a timely manner. When developing a new strategic plan our focus needs to be the students and their education because, as Ravitch has shown, data and information can be altered or distorted.
Summary:
In this chapter, Ravitch argues that poverty is highly correlated with low academic achievement. In comparison to the academic reformer's claim that poverty is an excuse for ineffective teaching and failing schools. Everyone can agree that teachers need to be effective. Specifically, Bill Gates, the Obama Administration, and other education reformers believe that if impoverished children are not achieving high levels, it is because their teachers have low expectations and are not effective. However, poverty is most likely the reason that these students are not doing so well. Poverty affects children's health and well-being, emotional lives, attention spans, school attendance records, academic performance, motivation to do well, and forces them to focus on daily survival. In a society of great abundance, poverty is degrading and most are dragged down by the circumstances of being poor. This is proven in impoverished students in America. Actually, the rate of childhood poverty in America is higher than any other advanced nation. UNICEF reported that it is as high as 23%. The burdens of poverty prove to be physical, emotional, cognitive, and physiological. It has major affects on students in America. The achievement gap begins at the very first day of kindergarten. Students with good health, regular checkups, good nutrition, educated parents, live in a literate environment, basic economic security, and a variety of afterschool and summer activities. These basic standards help students thrive, but children in poverty often fall behind from not having these basic keys for survival.
People are debating about which should be fixed first: poverty or schools. Bill Gates believes that there can be good schools in poor neighborhoods, so improving education will solve poverty. However, Joel Klein (Chancellor of New York schools) believes that America will never fix their education until they fix poverty, but America will never poverty until they fix urban schools. Our country has sadly accepted poverty as this huge issue that is almost impossible to solve, but better education seems far more attainable. Reformers believe that no matter how oppressive poverty is, it can be overcome with effective teachers. However, this is not the case. This belief delays the steps necessary to heal our society and help children. Fixing schools will help fix poverty.
Opinion:
I was specifically interested in this chapter because one day I would like to work for Teach for America or possibly be an elementary teacher in a city. This chapter gave me an entirely new perspective on poverty and how it affects schools. I have lived five minutes from New Haven, Connecticut all of my life, but I have never given much thought to how much some students are probably struggling dealing with poverty. It is unbelievable how many people are arguing about what should be fixed first, but we should all be making efforts to help. I believe that schools should be fixed first. Urban schools should be fixed to become safe and positive places for its students to go. They should all be given enough funding to provide all students with proper resources, assistance, and effective teachers. Effective teachers are important, however, it is more important to make students want to learn and ask questions. Learning should be a positive environment no matter where you live or how much money you have. This can only be achieved if people make efforts to fix schools in order to improve poverty.
Ravitch Chapter Response
Chapter 6
I chose to talk about Chapter 6 in Diane Ravitch’s book “Reign of Error”. I chose this chapter to talk about because I can honestly say that I agree with Ravitch 100% in what she is saying here. This chapter is all about the achievement gap in education and how it can be solved. According to the data in this book, the achievement gap is getting bigger year after year. The reformers argue that the way to fix this is to create more private schools, but Ravitch completely disagrees. She believes that the only way to fix this is to identify the problem. The real problem is the language barrier between these young kids. This is caused largely by the parents who do not teach their children English before going to a school that teaches in English, and also caused by the low income of many families. Ravitch also pointed out that there was a rise in NEAP scores. It is important to also recognize that improvement is happening! It is just hard to see this improvement because ethnic diversity is increasing at the same rate that the achievement gap is closing. Unlike the reformers, Ravitch also argues that standardized testing does not help. This is something that I agree fully with and really think that it should not be something that so much money is wasted on. A couple of decades back, the achievement gap was smaller due to the civil rights movement and Ravitch argues that change is still happening, it is just a slow process. It is hard to see the gap now-a-days because the gap stays the same since all ethnicities are improving.
The achievement gap is real. Although it should be getting smaller and be close to gone by now, that is not the case. Ravitch suggests that this process is slow and the only way to improve it is to start from the source of the problem. Ravitch believes that this achievement gap starts before children are even enrolled in school and only broadens as they grow older. She believes that it has already made significant progress but that we are focusing our time and resources on the wrong areas. She said that “test scores and graduation rates are higher than ever”, but disagrees with the reformers and says that this is a societal problem and that we won’t accomplish anything until we realize that it is about poverty and racial segregation, NOT education. She believes that making the schools private will only further segregation and do no help to demoting it. Ravitch does, however, believe that this gap is a serious problem. According to NEAP scores, 49% African American 8th graders scored below basic in math and 41% African American 8th graders scored below basic in reading. Although these scores are higher than ever, they are still unacceptable. African Americans have shown that they can do much better than “basic” and need to be given the opportunity to try. It is important to know where to fund and where not to. Ravitch believes that schools were the cause of the achievement gaps and therefore cannot be the solution.
Reading notes from the chapter:
Relate to Rhode Island:
Achievement gaps are prevalent in each and every one of the states in our nation, and each state’s success is important, Rhode Island is no exception to this. This chapter helped to point out the cause of the achievement gap and also helps to guide the path to fixing it. This chapter also helps to pinpoint things that should NOT be done. This is not a problem that can be fixed in one day, not even one year, but it is important that we make this gap smaller. Ravitch believes that the key to success for this task is to start educating children young. If we break the language barrier at a young age, the students will strive more and more as they get older. Rhode Island schools are definitely subject to an achievement gap, and therefore this problem can be helped by developing a new strategic plan for the Rhode Island Department of Education. But, as stated above, this problem is not always because of education, sometimes it is societal. Income is also another factor in this problem and can only be fixed by the government making equal education for all. Overall, racial segregation and achievement gaps are very real, even in Rhode Island. Although we don’t know yet exactly how to fix this, we need to try.
My favorite chapter from Diane Ravitch’s book was chapter 3 -
Who Are Corporate Reformers?
Corporate reformers are mostly the people who have the money to throw at education. According to Ravitch reformers have the right goals in mind “ they want excellent education for all, to close the achievement gap, innovation and effectiveness, they want the best of everything for everyone.” This is why this chapter stood out to me so much, because reformers want what is best for education but they are going about it all the wrong way. Reformers are privatizing schools, lowering teacher qualifications and focusing too much on test scores. The school reforms are turning into a for profit business and focusing less on the actual education. She claims the “the reform is actually a “corporate reform” instead of educational. A big problem with the privatization of schools is that the money follows the child. Whenever a child leaves a public school the government money goes with them, even though most private schools and charter schools are privately funded. This can be damaging to the public system because that money is not necessarily used on that one student it is spread throughout the system. One of the most astounding parts of education reform is that it is not a one sided argument both democrats and republicans are involved. There are many foundations, both democrat and republican including the Goldwater Institute, The Freidman Foundation for Choice, and the Policy Innovators in Education Network. Ravitch refers to these as “Think Tanks”. Major corporations fund these think tanks to promote their shared agenda. This agenda generally includes privatization. These foundations include the Bill and Melinda gates foundation and the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. So basically the people with the money (Bill and Melinda Gates) get what they want out of reform because they are the people with money. It all comes down to that in the end, who has the money to put into the reform. The Gates foundation is the largest in the United States giving hundreds of millions in education grants. The gates support charter schools and test based teacher evaluations, because it is their money that is what they get. Barack Obama is surprisingly also a supporter of corporate reform. When he was elected to office his supporters expected him to eliminate No Child Left Behind, but instead he installed Race to the Top. Basically awarding money to the schools with the best test scores, not the schools who need more funding to improve. This was very hypocritical compared to Obama’s speech in 2012 claiming, “One thing I would never want to see is schools teaching to the test”. That is exactly what Race to the Top was advocating. I think this chapter is so important because educational reform will happen when there is support and the majority of support comes in the form of money. If the big foundations like the Bill and Linda Gates foundation stopped putting there money towards charter schools and started giving it to public schools the entire system could change. It is all in the hands of the reformers, the people with power. If the foundations with money and the president decided they no longer wanted to privatize and no longer wanted everything to be based off of test scores then there would be reform. They need to be educated on the options there are instead of sticking to what is known.
In this chapter Ravitch is arguing that test scores are not falling and that they are simply at the highest they have ever been. She looks at a lot of evidence from the NAEP exam (National Assessment of Educational Progress), which looks at scores of forth, eighth, and twelfth graders. Students have been learned more difficult material since the ‘90s and therefore their test scores have started to increase. The NAEP measures students in a scale score and an achievement level. When students score below proficient on the achievement level, they are thought they are below basic, which is completely false. Majority of students are below proficient but are in the basic category meaning they are average. Because people misread these scores, they are lead to believe that test scores are decreasing. But students who score basic are doing just fine; they are your typical B/C student. Math and Reading scores in almost every group of students have been improving over the past 20 years at a slow, consistent rate. Ravitch believes that reformers are interpreting the scores incorrectly; our scores are improving slowly over time.
I like this chapter in the book because it relates to my Strategic Plan Project. Individually I researched the question how effective international standardized test scores are. As a group we researched the effectiveness of standardized tests. We came up with the conclusion that there are better methods of measuring intelligence other than standardized tests. I did not research the trends in test scores over the years. Although, we are lagging behind other countries in our international exams Ravitch says that we are slowly improving over time in our own country. Of course, we can generate better test scores there is no question of that. But there is something to be said about our scores increasing over the past 20 years. Often reformers simply blame the education system but course material is gradually getting more difficult and therefore our scores are gradually improving. Although the assessment scores aren’t very high in comparison to other countries, the United States’ test scores are increasing.
This chapter is important in relation to developing a new strategic plan for Rhode Island Department of Education. They think that we have low test scores and that we need to improve them. We definitely need to increase our assessment scores but we also need to recognize that we have improved over time. The Rhode Island Department of Education needs to find ways we can keep improving our test scores and even at a faster rate. Because students’ scores have been getting progressively better but very slowly and consistently. It would be important to add into the Strategic Plan a way to improve student scores.
This topic is especially interesting to me because I understand the differences in learning quality based on class size. I agree that both students and teachers benefit from smaller classroom sizes. I attended Barrington High School, the top public high school in Rhode Island according to U.S. News & World Report published in 2014. According to the Profile for the Class of 2014 put out by the official school website, the average class size is 21 students. I found this to be mostly true. Some of my classes were about this size, but most were more. I didn’t recognize the true value of classes under 25 people until I was enrolled in an American Studies course my sophomore year of high school. This course was double the average class size, but with two teachers. I didn’t feel like this made a difference. I was lost in the sea of people around me. I didn’t feel comfortable asking questions aloud and I never felt like I got the individual help I deserved. This course was a different learning experience for me that I did not enjoy. Now in college, I feel the same way. I enjoy my small EDC 102H class, and strongly dislike my PSY 113 lecture with an auditorium full of people.
Ravitch’s claims support my opinions from the experiences that I had in high school. On page 245, she quotes economist James Heckman in saying, “attending smaller classes helps to develop the non-cognitive skills..that are so important to success in work, in college, and later in life.” The smaller class size allows teachers to give each student the individual attention they need to succeed academically. At risk students with learning challenges benefit most from smaller classes. This is all proven by higher student test scores and graduation rates from students in smaller class sizes. The issue with this reform is the reality. Reducing class sizes is a desire of many reformers, but it is unlikely that this agenda will ever push through due to financial restrictions. Tight school budgets will not allow the hiring of additional teachers. Personally, I think that the spending is worth it. The impact is significantly positive because students are more likely to succeed, and isn’t that the ultimate goal of American Education?
The claim in this chapter is The nation has a dropout crisis, and high school graduation rates are falling. However, the reality is, High school dropouts are at an all time low, and high school graduation rates are at an all time high. Ravitch explains that everyone believes there is a such thing called the dropout crisis and that there is a large amount of young people who never receive their high school diplomas. But, this is not true. Individuals have incorrect information about this "crisis." A high school diploma shows that one has the ability to complete high school. Although, those who do not receive their high school diplomas are at a disadvantage to earn a living, there are certainly jobs that high school diplomas aren't necessary for. Ravitch believes that the pressure to raise the graduation rates is leading to meaningless degrees rather focusing on better education. She feels that in order to reduce dropout rates and raise the graduation rates, it needs to be based off actual facts rather than assumptions about these ideas. Ravitch quotes,"People tend to work harder if they know that their hard work is productive. If we recognize the good work that so many principals, teachers, parents, youth counselors, school psychologists, and social workers have done over the years, they- and we- wouldn't feel hopeless about conquering problems."
According to the evidence that Ravitch uses, nearly a quarter of young people in the US are unable to complete their studies in the traditional four years. The four year graduation rate is one way to measure the graduation rates. This rate does not include those individuals who earn a GED. If those students were included, the high school graduation rate would be 90 percent. People between the ages 18 and 24 who were Asian/Pacific Islanders had a completion rate of 96 percent. White youths had a percentage of 94. Black youths had an 87 percent. American Indians/Alaska Natives had a completion rate of 82 percent and a percentage of 77 for hispanics. Aside from the graduation rate, there are other ways to calculate the dropout rate. There is an "event dropout rate" which measures the percentage of of youths age 15-24 who dropped out of grades 10-12 in a one year period. There is also a "status rate" which includes all dropouts between the ages 16 and 24 who do not have a high school diploma regardless of when they dropped out of school. The status rate is usually higher than the event dropout rate.
Reading Notes:
A number of them are African American and Hispanic.
High school diploma signifies the ability to persist and complete high school.
The pressure to raise graduation rates often leads to meaningless degrees, not better education.
1940 the high school graduation rate reached 50%
This issue is important for districts throughout the US. It is important for Rhode Island to take this issue into consideration when creating a new strategic plan. Although the dropout rates and graduation rates are currently steady, there is always room for a slip. The RI Department of Education's new strategic plan should make an effort to encourage their residents to complete high school and earn their high school diploma. Although a diploma is not always required for a job, it should be stressed that it is a disadvantage to those who do not receive their high school diploma. The new plan should also be supportive to those students who for some reason are unable to complete high school in four years. It is important for students to know that they can receive a GED by taking an extra year or so, which would be more desirable than dropping out completely.
Claim
Reformer's claim is that merit pay will achieve improvement. They believe that American public education is failing because of its teachers and that the wrong types of people have entered the education field who are under qualified. They believe that if teachers had a chance to earn pay based on perfomance, it would solve this "teacher-quality" problem. The reformers believe that with financial incentive, the teachers will work harder to make sure their students are getting the recognizable and praise-able grades so that they can keep that extra sum of money they were offered. Ravitch claims that reformers want education to become more like business, governed by the same principles of competition, with compensation tied to results. She claims that merit pay has never improved achievement and proves this with a number of different claims.
Ravitch's evidence
Ravitch claims that teachers do not like the idea of non-educators (most reformers) redesigning the rules of their workplace. Teachers do not like merit pay because it destroys a healthy and collaborative school environment. Government programs like No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top directly target teachers as the reason for student's failure. They also offer incentives to fire teachers whose students have lower test scores. In the 1980s, Richard Murnane and David Cohen surveyed the history of merit pay. In the few towns that had offered merit pay from 1918 to 1945, the interest in merit pay vastly declined and by 1953 only 4% of cities with a population over 30,000 offered merit pay. They also looked into piece-rate compensation, which also doesn't benefit the teacher or student. It encourages teachers to spend more time with students who will respond to their coaching and less to those who won't. Another issue that was found was that teachers would ignore subjects that were not being tested. The curriculum was being narrowed and the student's overall education experience was dwindling. Many other issues arise with merit pay according to Ravitch. Many teachers who received low scores responded by working less harder as opposed to working harder. Another issue was honest distribution of merit pay. Were principles handing out merit pay to their favorites? or to the teachers that actually deserved it? Overall merit pay is demoralizing, and cannot reasonably be administered fairly. Merit pay does not motivate teachers in Ravitch's investigation, instead it caused resentment and dissension among teachers who did not get merit pay. It is not associated with student performance. Ravitch says, "the paradox of merit pay in education is that even if it did work, it would still fail . The more that teachers and schools are compelled to focus on raising test scores, the more likely they are to narrow the curriculum; the more likely that districts and schools will game the system to inflate scores; the more likely that there will be cheating; the more likely that teachers will seek to avoid low scoring students".
Notes
-education as a business
-promotes competition and compensation results from that competition
-unions are a threat to this idea
-teachers don't like merit pay, it is degrading and demoralizing for them (discouraging)
-destroys the balance they strive for in a school, intertwined curriculum, collab.
-Murnane/Cohen research in 1980s
-no solution to problem of how to motivate teachers
-piece rate compensation---> only focuses on kids who will succeed, manufactures jobs NOT education
-narrows curriculum so only subjects that are being tested are taught or focused on
-Old style merit pay: fairness of merit...are principles being honest about distributing bonuses?
-found that teachers try less hard when rated poorly or do not receive merit pay
-Merit pay is not motivating, they work as hard as they can. they don't need an incentive to be motivated. wrong identification of problem
-government programs encourage incentives
-overall merit pay had no effect on students (the most important part of the issue)
Why important for RIDE?
The sole importance of school and academia is the student and his/her success. If teachers are competing for money, narrowing the curriculum, and ultimately focusing on themselves, it seems as if the child is losing in more ways than one. They have a distracted teacher who wants to win, they are missing out on valuable knowledge because their teacher wants them to score better on specific subject areas, the school environment becomes extremely stressful for teacher and student now that there are high stakes involved. There is no way that merit pay can be a part of the Rhode Island Strategic Plan. With multiple cases failed, it seems like it would be a joke for anyone to ever propose merit pay in communities that are large, fast paced, and always changing. This chapter promotes the idea that merit pay cannot be a part of any states education plan. It offers no benefit to the student or teacher, the two most important parts of the educational system. If the student receives more negatives than positive benefits, why is it relentlessly being proposed in school districts?
Chapter 24: The Essentials of a Good Education in Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools
Citation: Ravitch, D. (2013). Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools. Vintage.
Summary: Acclaimed education historian and policy analyst Diane Ravitch has many ideas about how to improve public education. Ravitch's third solution states, "Every school should have a full, balanced and rich curriculum, including the arts, science, history, literature, civics, geography, foreign languages, mathematics, and physical education" (Ravitch, 2013). Having a full range of electives and academic opportunities is a reality for schools in affluent communities, but children who grow up in low-income areas do not have a similar experience with curriculum. No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top have linked federal funding and teacher evaluation to high test scores in math and reading, thus undermining the value of enriching academic areas other than those that are tested. Ravitch asserts that the sole purpose of education is "to prepare everyone to assume the rights and responsibilities of citizenship in a democracy," and that narrow curricula are not going to provide enough inspiration and information to students who are learning where their place in society will be. Rather than putting all of a school's resources and energy into a few subjects, Ravitch suggests that studying civics, government, economics, statistics, foreign language, creative writing, and the arts to help prepare students for life ahead. It is a diverse curriculum and ample opportunities for personal growth that will provide the time and place for the "mental, physical, and ethical development" (Ravitch, 2013) that students need. Ravitch is disgusted by the way that children are beginning to be valued solely for their test scores instead of the worth of their character, and she suggests schools shift their curricular priorities to be more expansive and accessible to all students.
Reaction: Reading Ravitch's claims helped me solidify my beliefs about the need for a well-rounded curriculum in American public schools. I was so fortunate to be offered pottery, film, French, economics, world religions, history, environmental sciences, creative writing, and advanced calculus all in one school. The problem is, I paid for that service and I agree with Ravitch that all children have a right to what I paid for. I believe that the inequities that are rooted in deeply rooted racism and classism manifest themselves in and are exacerbated by the differences in curricular opportunities amongst schools. I wish Ravitch explained more about how offering a wider range of courses to low-performing students it would affect their academic performance and personal growth. I feel conflicted because I do want all students to do well in math and reading, but I also know that only studying a few subjects that I am not good at every day would demolish my love of learning. Overall, Ravitch's points about the essentials of a good education made me more excited to research well-rounded curricula and gave me more confidence in my ideas about the topic. If more legislators knew about all of the positive affects of electives and enriching curricula, they might realized that pressuring schools to perform well in a few subjects leads to a well-rounded curriculum being compromised.
Mr. Fogleman
American Education
28 November 2014
Ravitch: Chapter 25 - Class Size Matters for Teaching and Learning
Ravitch supplies a fourth solution in chapter 25 to problems with the education system. This solution is as follows- "Reduce class sizes to improve student achievement and behavior" (242). Ravitch argues that large classrooms reduce the ability for the teacher to teach, because he or she is so busy trying to control the classroom. Studies have shown that students in smaller classrooms are less likely to act up and more likely to be engaged in what they are learning. However, although many reformers have seen that this is true, they fear that making smaller classrooms will be too costly. More classes means more teachers, and more teachers means a more expensive budget. But Ravitch argues right back, saying that these methods are expensive, but the alternative is more expensive. The alternative would be allowing kids to remain in the low learning rate classes they are in and end up spending thousands and even millions of dollars later on in remedial classes. She says that we either pay for success now, or pay to try to fix failure later.
According to the evidence Ravitch uses, only 4 to 6 percent of teachers would be willing to take on a larger class in exchange for a higher salary. This says that teachers dislike large classes enough that they are willing to refuse more pay because it is just not worth their effort. The Scholastic-Gates survey found that larger classrooms led to more children with behavioral problems, more impoverished children, and more English language learners. These students need extra attention, something that they are just not getting from big classroom settings. Studies have also shown that smaller classes improve cognitive skills, participation in discussion, and even a lower drop out rate in the future."A study of 2,561 schools released by the U.S. Department of Education found that students achievement was closely linked to class size, even in the upper grades" (246). All around, students have significant improvements in their learning when they are part of a small classroom.
Reading Notes-
Rhode Island Education:
These reforms will be good for Rhode Island education in that more students will develop a deeper knowledge base earlier in their lives and as a result have a better foundation to build off of. Whether its shrinking classes or adding more teachers aids or both, this will help the economy in the long run. Not to mention the long lasting benefits it will have for the next generation of students. Imagine what would happen if more students were able to absorb the knowledge that teachers were spoon feeding them. How much lower the poverty rate, drop out rate, and uneducated rate would be. All research aside, it is logical to think that smaller classrooms would help children learn. Kids would be less afraid to speak up when they are confused, they would feel more compelled to pay close attention, and they become part of a discussion in which they are encouraged to think for themselves.
Professor Fogleman
EDC 102H
Ravitch Reflection
Chapter Two: The Context of Corporate Reform
My favorite chapter in the book Reign of Error by Diane Ravitch was the second chapter, The Context for Corporate Reform. I liked this chapter because it allowed me to learn all about what has been going on with corporate reform in our society. It also allowed me to learn about and understand the new ideas that now surround the idea of Corporate Reform. This chapter helps you understand how the ideas that have stemmed from Corporate Reform have grown over the years especially in the Clinton administration and under George W. H. Bush with the No Child Left Behind policy in the early 2000s. The chapter also lets you know exactly what types of Corporate Reform were thought of first with the Clinton administration, they wanted national standards and national testing to understand the schooling in the United States. While during the second Bush administration the idea of No Child Left Behind came into play and that had testing for all children in the grades 3 to 8 every year to see the progress each year. The idea with No Child Left Behind was that it found the schools that weren’t doing what they should to help their students and got rid of them. To me this is seeing things change by the ideas of Corporate Reform and really understanding exactly what they are doing. These were things that I had never known because it was not really wide spread knowledge, also that I was a lot younger when No Child Left Behind was really working for the betterment of schools.
"Class Size Matters for Teaching and Learning"
This chapter discusses class size and how it affects both teachers and students. Over 80% of all teachers would take smaller class sizes over an increase in pay. Although it is expected of teachers to have attitudes like this, the fact that so many of them do proves how important this issue is and how crucial class size is to learning. Parents and students agree that smaller class sizes are ideal, and even the older people in government now claim that large class sizes worked well for them when they were in school can't say they would rather have their children in huge classes. When larger class sizes worked for these older people was before our school systems had so much diversity in them when it comes to race, income level, social class, mental, emotional, and physical ability, and ethnic background.
Teachers' ratings depend entirely on their class size, because a teacher who can work very well with 25 students would definitely see his/her ratings decline in a class size of 40, which is a change some reformers want to make in order to only keep the absolute best teachers. So Ravitch claims that even the best teachers wouldn't be the best if their entire environment was changed that drastically. As classes become more and more diverse, students need more time to learn and interact, and teachers need more time to help every student, especially when the amount of classrooms with teacher aids is very small. More students means a teacher has to focus more on management and control rather than instruction and curriculum.
It would be very costly to reduce class sizes, because it means hiring more teachers for the same amount of classes, but Ravitch believes that in the long run it is well worth the cost because it will result in higher achievement levels, higher graduation rates, and lower special education referrals. Basically Ravitch says that schools have two choices: reduce class sizes and experience great benefits from it for years, or increase class sizes and deal with remediation, disruptive behavior, and failure for many years. And although both options would be expensive, one will need money to increase future success, and one will need money to compensate for failure.
I did my research for the RI Strategic Plan project on a rich curriculum; this chapter was interesting to read after having prior knowledge about the topic. Having a rich curriculum would veer away from teaching solely to prepare for required state testing. The part I disagreed with Ravitch about was the belittling of workforce preparation; I think the addition of that in school would make a difference in a student’s future. The importance of school could be increased by standards of parents, students, and teachers with a rich curriculum by broadening the topics learned and better preparing students for the world. By doing this, students will grow and be better citizens. I think the ‘game of school’ would be minimized because teachers would have more control over their role in the classroom and students would have many different subjects to learn. School may become more interesting with the implementation of many subjects and students would in turn become more engaged.
Notes on Chapter 24:
-arts, science, history, literature, civics, geography, foreign languages, mathematics, and physical education
-No Child Left Behind Act led to cutting of other subjects (that weren’t required/tested)
-2008 recession also led to budget cutsàcut out extras
-demanding families would expect much more than basic skills; full, rich curriculum
-school is needed to make students good citizens
-misconceived notion that test scores are more valuable than a wholesome curriculum
-liberal arts teach things that cannot be taught in other settings/courses
-talents, careers, and citizenship should be explored
Ryan Smith
Generally, this chapter suggests that in order for charter schools to be successful in pursuit of their original purpose (“A way to empower public school teachers to devise their own innovative curricula and methods and to free them from excessive regulation and bureaucracy” (Ravitch 248).), for-profit charters must be banned. Ravitch starts off by explaining how high the expulsion rates are at charter schools. The children that are expelled, usually those who score lower (on average) on standardized tests, and are sent to public schools. Consequently, public schools are responsible for the students that are more difficult to teach while test scores at charter schools rise. Ravitch offers five changes to state law that could realign charter schools with their original purpose.
First, Ravitch suggests that no school should be operated for profit. She says, “The primary goal of a for-profit organization is to maximize profit, not to produce great education” (Ravitch 250). Secondly, Ravitch says that charter schools should be managed by local educators and nonprofit organizations as opposed to charter chains. A charter school managed by a community is more likely to reflect the individualistic goals of that community, as opposed to the goals of a for-profit chain. Next, Ravitch advises that the salaries of charter school executives and principals be aligned with those of public school superintendents and principals. This would likely eliminate competition within a community. Fourth, Ravitch insists that online charter schools are closely monitored. Students who wish to enroll in online charters should be interviewed and deemed legitimate, and upon leaving online schools their funds should follow them. Finally, Ravitch proposes that a portion of students struggling to succeed in public schools be enrolled in charters. Charter schools could then pursue their original goal, to explore new ways to educate these students. Overall, it is essential that instead of competing with each other, charter and public schools cooperate to better the education system in the United States.
Citation:
Ravitch, D. (2013). Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools. Vintage.
I did add to the end of chapter 6 in the big note file. I wrote a one paragraph summary of the reformers' claim and Ravitch's argument, a description of the evidence that used by Ravitch, and a description of why this issue is important for our efforts to develop a new strategic plan.
In this chapter the reformers main claim is that the achievement gaps between minority students are getting larger and larger and that privatization will aid in closing the achievement gap. The main argument made by ravitch is that there has been progress made in lowering the achievement gap, it just is not very noticeable because all ethnicities of students are increasing at a similar rate. she also claims that the achievement gap will remain large if we do not focus our attention at the real cause of the gap which is the family income and education level of the parents. The reformers believe that standardized testing will be able to change the achievement gap as well as improving the quality of teachers in lower income urban schools. Ravitch also claims that standardized testing does not solve to root problem which is that students are entering school unprepared to learn due to a language barrier or a childhood lees directed toward learning that would be given through educated parents.
The main evidence used by Ravitch in this chapter are the increases in NAEP scores presented above by former students. The number of students below basic in the fourth grade math category decreased substantially for all ethnicities as did eighth grade math and reading skills. Ravitch also points out that the largest decrease in the achievement gap was in the 70’s and 80’s because of the civil rights movement and since then the gap has remained only because all ethnicities of students are improving in their NAEP scores with the exception of American Indians in fourth grade reading.
This issue is important for the development of a new strategic plan in Rhode Island because it provides information on what causes the achievement gap and where to invest resources to continue narrowing the gap. The learning of vocabulary and skills needed to school begins at a very young age before school begins and even before preschool begins. Because of this fact it is very beneficial for young students to enroll in some kind of preschool classes to ensure they are ready for Kindergarten and first grade. Pre-school should be a more widely available for students in urban areas so more affluent children are not the only children who receive this advantage.
According to James Heckman the numbers of children born into disadvantaged homes is increasing. If a child has an absence of supportive family environment then it hurts the child's future and creates the achievement gap. This can be stopped if society intervenes early enough. Early childhood education can improve the cognitive and emotional abilities of the pupils who experience disadvantaged homes. This early foundation for learning is crucial for the rest of the child's life. Children who are motivated to learn earlier in life are more likely to be socially and economically successful.
Ravitch believes that noncognitive skills are just as important in life as cognitive ones. She thinks that programs like No Child Left Behind do not emphasis noncognitive skills such as motivation, self discipline, and the ability to work with others. Investments in early childhood education leave significant lasting effects on the child and help improve noncognitive skills. High quality and well prepared teachers could change the achievement gaps of many kids.
Chapter 5 focuses mainly on analyzing the standardized test called the NAEP. Ravitch gets right to the point that, "Critics have complained for many years that American students are not learning as much as they used to or that academic performance is flat" in the first sentence of this chapter. The entire chapter is an explanation on how test score are in fact steadily rising. She explained the detail of the scoring of the NAEP, and made it clear that a student earns a score on a scale from 0 to 500 but receiving a 250 is not a bad grade. Although as an average this would be a 50% this is not how this data is meant to be interpreted. Rather the score anables us to compare to other years and see a trend improvement over time. The goal is not to receive a 500 but perhaps a high average score than the previous year. Additionally those who interpret these scores do not realize there are also achievement levels advanced, proficient, basic, and below basic. Ravitch in fact shows readers a clear example where data was misinterpreted. Ravitch states on page 48 that, "Guggenheim assumed that students who were not 'proficient' on the NAEP were 'below grade level'". Guggenheim continued to make statements based upon that. But us readers were already aware that this is not true because besides being proficient you could be advance, or basic, leaving the rest to being below basic. Being below basic would be the only students who are below grade level as he is claiming 70% of those taking the test to be which is completely inaccurate.
This chapter was very interesting to me to not only see the advancement that we as a nation have made over the last decade, but also it was amazing to see that people were actually misinformed because a huge piece of information was missing from their analysis. This made me realize as a student and a future educator that when analyzing data I must be aware of what this data was meant for and how to read the data, and to not make assumptions. It was relieving to know that our countries education system is improving according to the NAEP. I was also intrigued by the assumptions that Ravitch made based upon the test scores of different ethnicities and how that spoke to the way in which these students were nourished and not so much to how they have been educated. But overall it was exciting to hear that the education system is improving despite what society may think considering that Guggenheim had misread the data from the NAEP.